As home computers and portable laptops become common, so do problems arising from using shared resources to access information over networks outside the home or office. Individuals having separate computers require access to different networks and need a secure line to exchange information. For example, one person may work for company A, and another person may work for company B. Both people desire to work via their laptops from the same physical location, such as the home or office. To work, the first person must access company A=s network from a port, such as a telephone jack in the home. The second person needs to access company B=s network from another port as well. Though using different ports, both people use the same physical resources to access their networks.
Local-area-network technology, such as shared Ethernet, is easy to use but is inconvenient if access to multiple separate networks is required. For each network, a set of wires is run to each room, or location, for using the network. Thus, one location may be wired for one network, while a second network is wired to another location. The users of these networks are constrained physically by the locations of the wires. Further, if outside internet access is desired, another set of wires is placed in those locations as well. Each room is separately wired.
If the network access requirements change, the wires must be physically modified to accept the new network or to remove the old one. These procedures are inconvenient for locations that are dynamic in their network requirements, such as office spaces or personal residences.
To avoid security violations and to keep network communications separate, switched as opposed to shared—Ethernet can be utilized. A switched Ethernet operates to keep virtual local area networks (AVLANs@) separate.
Assignment of a port to a VLAN is performed by a network administrator. From an individual user=s perspective, however, the situation is the same as in the case of a shared Ethernet.
Attempts to make network access more dynamic or accessible result in increased costs or physical demands. Telephone jacks connected to a telephone network are one such attempt to provide better network access. A user can plug in to a telephone line anywhere in an office or house and access their network of choice. The user, however, now has exclusive use of the telephone line, and other users are prevented from using the same telephone line. Hence, to access multiple networks, additional telephone lines must be placed at each location, increasing the cost of maintaining each telephone line and installing additional telephone ports in each location. Yet another deficiency is speed since telephone lines, unlike broadband network connections, do not support high bandwidth for efficient and timely network access.
Another attempt to provide better network access is by placing special software on the personal computers that connect to the networks. The special software would provide encryption capabilities to communicate to the network from a wire location. However, the software consumes memory space on the computer and would have to be executed prior to accessing the network. Further, special decryption programs would have to run at the network=s server to accept the encrypted information. From the user=s standpoint it is difficult simultaneously execute security software and general application on the same personal computer.
None of these attempts provide a network configuration that is dynamic and not physically constrained. The above-enumerated systems do not allow a user to move from one location to another, creating and extinguishing networks as they are needed, or secure access to networks that prevent unauthorized access without undue physical requirements.